Apple bids farewell to Apple Music Festival after 10 years

As Apple's focus shifts to original video content for its services business.

The London Roundhouse will feel emptier this September, as Apple is ending its annual music festival after nearly 10 years. The Apple Music Festival, which was called the iTunes Music Festival until 2015, has been held annually by the tech giant since 2007. London's Roundhouse had been the festival's home for most of its existence, but Apple confirmed to Music Business Worldwide that it will not host a festival at the UK venue in 2017.

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The Apple Music Festival hosted many of the music industry's biggest names over its tenure: Lady Gaga, Adele, Oasis, Coldplay, Pharrell Williams, Kendrick Lamar, and most recently, Elton John and Chance the Rapper in the 2016 lineup. Tickets were given to competition winners, and many performances were streamed live on iTunes and Apple Music. However, the festival has been scaled back over the years from a concert every night in September to just ten shows in total.

Apple gave no official reason for ending the music festival, but the move comes as the company focuses more on original content for its various services, including iTunes and Apple Music. Most of these moves surround video: Apple recently hired former Sony presidents Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg to lead its original content initiative, and they'll have $1 billion at their disposal in 2018 to produce and acquire new shows and movies.

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But Apple's history is heavily steeped in the music industry, so it's unlikely that Apple is getting out of the live music space entirely. Recently, the company backed a number of one-off shows, including performances by Haim in London and Arcade Fire in Brooklyn. Apple Music also sponsored Drake's 2016 summer tour, so it's likely that we'll see more Apple-branded singular events and tours. It's also likely that Apple will treat these music events like it will video going forward: it's an investment in original content that will attract more subscribers to Apple Music and more paying customers to iTunes.